Are we counting stuff like Flair when he arrived in 1991? Or when heels like Jericho would call themselves the uncrowned champion because they felt they got screwed? Or when Shawn would carry around the other IC belt and refuse to acknowledge Razor as the real champ?

Don’t think we’ve had a guy do this routine with a memory lost aspect which sounds like a Russo storyline that probably happened in TNA but no one saw it

JBL in 2005. Once he dropped the world title to Cena at WM21, Cena introduced the spinner and JBL kept carrying around the old title and saying "nothing has changed". When Cena beat him at Judgement '05 in an "I Quit" match, he took both titles.

Probably not quite what you're looking for, but Bob Backlund in 94 sort of did it. After beating Bret, in his post-match interview, he's introduced as the new champion but "corrects" Todd that he's been the champion since 1978, having never lost the title since he didn't submit in 1983.

Feels like it would be a fun midcard champion more than a world champ gimmick to me but at this point I don't really like seeing world champs booked too comedic. I don't want them booked as some kind of ultra badass if they're a heel either but there's sort of a fine line. I like my heels (with the excpetion of the Braun/Vader types) cowardly cheaters over dorky or goofy.

Probably not quite what you're looking for, but Bob Backlund in 94 sort of did it. After beating Bret, in his post-match interview, he's introduced as the new champion but "corrects" Todd that he's been the champion since 1978, having never lost the title since he didn't submit in 1983.

Probably not the thread to discuss this, but it still boggles my mind that to have a similar gap between reigns now, you would need someone to win their first title since 2006. That seems feasible. (Kurt Angle, maybe?) Backlund in 1994 felt like a relic from an entire generation ago. Speaks to how much and how quickly the company evolved once the WrestleMania era began in '85.

Hogan had a long gap between 1993 and 2002 but in his case, he was obviously quite visible and relevant in the industry, same with Angle. Backlund just vanished from the national picture entirely so a better example would be if it was someone who was a ghost from the wrestling and/or general public and I’m struggling to think of a current example that could even work now since that concept of disappearing doesn’t exist now for a top guy outside of death or severe injury.

Goldberg was basically a ghost as far as pro wrestling was concerned. He didn't appear for anything major that I remember. He might have been on TV a bit here and there but that's more the nature of media today being different from the 80s than anything else.

Also, on a separate note, Kane went like 12 years between world title reigns despite being at least a moderate presence through the entire interim. I think he held the ECW title in there somewhere but, really, how much can that count for anything? Just imagine Randy Orton after winning that first title in 2004 and not winning it again until 2016. Don't imagine too hard, no matter how good it feels. If Miz sticks around another couple of years he could be a prime candidate for a similar gold watch type of second world title run.

Oh, and as far as the topic of this thread, original heel Alberto Del Rio would have been the most perfect delusional not-really-World-Champ ever after all that DESTINY stuff and then losing to Edge. That's the angle they should have went with.

Yeah, that was actually Austin's Smoking Skull belt. The night after WM15, Austin called out Vince and gave him the WWF belt, then told him he was still the champion and that he wanted his custom belt back. It ended up with Rock, who taunted him with it up through Backlash where Austin beat him and reclaimed it. Taker beat Austin the next month and the belt was never seen again

Yeah, that was actually Austin's Smoking Skull belt. The night after WM15, Austin called out Vince and gave him the WWF belt, then told him he was still the champion and that he wanted his custom belt back. It ended up with Rock, who taunted him with it up through Backlash where Austin beat him and reclaimed it. Taker beat Austin the next month and the belt was never seen again